FROM ALLEN PARK, MICH. — From what Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle was saying Saturday, it didn't matter so much that the Red Wings juggled their lines in Game 4 to put Marian Hossa with Johan Franzen and Valtteri Filppula, forming an explosive trio that produced four goals and seven points in a series-tying victory.
As Carlyle saw it, the Red Wings could have sent out Ted Lindsay, Alex Delvecchio and Gordie Howe -- average age over 80, though Lindsay probably still throws a mean elbow -- and might have won because the Ducks were so woeful defensively, especially around their net.
That's not an insult to Hossa, a dynamic winger who's so intent on winning the Stanley Cup that he took less money last summer to play in Detroit than he might have gotten elsewhere.
"No matter who they put together, we know they have world-class players to put in and out in those situations," Carlyle said Saturday.
The Ducks' problem is that the Red Wings' superior skill and depth, unrealized in the early going, have come to the forefront as the series has progressed, putting Detroit in position to seize control when the series resumes today at Joe Louis Arena.
Seeing Hossa on the so-called second line and Pavel Datsyuk reunited with sometime linemate Henrik Zetterberg and abrasive winger Tomas Holmstrom wasn't a surprise to the Ducks. It just turned out to be an unpleasant sight.
"It just gives them a different look and maybe gave them that spark last game to start getting them on the board," Ducks center Andrew Ebbett said.
If that was the start of something big for the Red Wings, the Ducks will have their hands full today and in Game 6 in Anaheim on Tuesday. A seventh game, if necessary, will be played next Thursday in Detroit.
The Ducks were outshot, outhit and outplayed for most of the first three games but won twice because of a power play that capitalized on its rare chances, staunch defense and Jonas Hiller's unassailable goaltending. A quick whistle by referee Brad Watson on Hossa's apparent tying goal in Game 3 helped too.
That luck and those strengths outweighed the Ducks' shortcomings until late in Game 3, when Detroit began producing waves of quality chances. After a slow start in Game 4, Coach Mike Babcock mixed his lines and the Ducks began making errors in coverage and judgment. The timing could be coincidental -- or connected.
